1974 in video games

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1974 saw the expansion of technology and public awareness of video games. A proliferation of companies creating commercial video games in the coin-operated market attracted attention from the mainstream press. Coin-operated games began to diversify in content beyond Pong derivatives. The first three-dimensional games were developed for linked graphical terminals which would not be widely commercialized. Some of the first efforts to create video game consoles after the release of Magnavox's Odyssey became available in the United States and Europe.

Contents

Events

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Total Video Game Cabinets: 40,000 units. [13] [Note 1]

Total Video Game Revenue (machine sales): $40.5 million. [13] [Note 2]

Title Arcade cabinet units (Lifetime)ManufacturerDeveloperGenre
Tank 16,000 [14] [Note 3] Kee Games Kee Games Multi-directional shooter
Flim Flam12,000 [15] approximately*

5,700 [16]

Meadows Games Meadows Games Sports
Gran Trak 10 10,000 [17] * Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Racing
Gran Trak 204,500 [16] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Racing
Clean Sweep3,500 [18] Ramtek Corporation Ramtek Corporation Sports
Baseball2,000 [19] * Ramtek Corporation Ramtek Corporation Sports
Formula K [Note 4] 2,000 [20] Kee Games Atari Inc. Racing
TV Basketball1,400 [21] *

500 [16]

Midway Manufacturing Taito Corp Sports
Leader1,000 [16] Midway Manufacturing Midway Manufacturing Sports
TV Flipper1,000 [16] Midway Manufacturing Ramtek Corporation Sports
Robot500 [16] Allied Leisure Industries Allied Leisure Industries Sports
TV Pin Game500 [16] [22] * Chicago Coin Chicago Coin Sports
Qwak! 250 [16] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Light-gun shooter
Pin Pong250 [16] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Sports
TV Goalee121 [22] * Chicago Coin Leisure & Allied Industries Sports

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

Home consoles

Total Console Unit Sales: 145,000–150,000 consoles. [23] [24]

Total Console Revenue (retail): $9–11.3 million. [23] [25]

TitleGame console units (1974)ManufacturerDeveloper
Odyssey 129,000 [26] *

150,000 [27] [Note 5]

Magnavox Sanders Associates/Magnavox

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

Publications

Notable releases

Arcade games

Computer games

Hardware

Console

  • Magnavox releases the Odyssey in markets outside of North America.
  • July - Control Sales (a sales arm of Universal Research Laboratories) offers the game console Video Action. It is a repurposing of Tennis Tourney by Allied Leisure, including a television and four potentiometer controls for $499. [48] It is the second unique video game console available to consumers. [49]
  • August – Schraeder Electronics offers Dixi Ping Pong in the Netherlands, utilizing a custom transistor-to-transistor logic console design.
  • October – Italian home appliance company Zanussi advertises the Ping-O-Tronic console. It features one-handed controllers. [50]
    • Videomaster Ltd. of the UK offers Home T.V. Game, the first in a line of systems from the company. [51]

Business

Notes

  1. ↑ The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals 30,000 games with traditional arcade cabinets and 10,000 for those under the new cocktail table presentation.
  2. ↑ The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals $33 million in games with traditional arcade cabinets and $7.5 million for those under the new cocktail table presentation.
  3. ↑ Ralph Baer's numbers compiled in April 1976 are mostly estimates without direct access to sales figures.
  4. ↑ Kee Games version of Gran Trak 10 .
  5. ↑ Ralph Baer's numbers for Odyssey units sold per year contradict those of official figures disclosed by Magnavox in 1974.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnavox Odyssey 2</span> Second generation home video game console

The Magnavox Odyssey 2, also known as Philips Odyssey 2, is a home video game console of the second generation that was released in 1978. It was sold in Europe as the Philips Videopac G7000, in Brazil and Peru as the Philips Odyssey and in Japan as Odyssey2. The Odyssey 2 was one of the five major home consoles prior to the 1983 video game market crash, along with Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Intellivision and ColecoVision.

<i>Pong</i> 1972 arcade game

Pong is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of video games</span>

The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers and mainframes. Spacewar! was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first such games on a video display. The first consumer video game hardware was released in the early 1970s. The first home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey, and the first arcade video games were Computer Space and Pong. After its home console conversions, numerous companies sprang up to capture Pong's success in both the arcade and the home by cloning the game, causing a series of boom and bust cycles due to oversaturation and lack of innovation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnavox Odyssey</span> First commercial home video game console

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track scores. The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to accompany the games, while a peripheral controller—the first video game light gun—was sold separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1971 in video games</span> Overview of the events of 1971 in video games

1971 is the first year of the commercial video game industry with the release of Computer Space by Nutting Associates and Galaxy Game by Mini-Computer Applications. The majority of digital games remained on mainframe computers and time-sharing networks, while an increasing number were demonstrated outside of traditional computing audiences. Several developments of games later commercialized – including Oregon Trail and the Magnavox Odyssey console – are first publicly tested in this period.

1972 marked an important landmark in the history of the video game industry with the releases of Pong and the Odyssey home console. The profile of electronic games rose substantially and companies began exploring the distribution of video games on a larger scale. Important mainframe computer games were created in this period which became the basis for early microcomputer games.

Exidy, Inc. was an American developer and manufacturer of coin-operated electro-mechanical and video games which operated from 1973 to 1999. They manufactured many notable titles including Death Race (1976), Circus (1978), Star Fire (1978), Venture (1981), Mouse Trap (1981), Crossbow (1983), and Chiller (1986). They were also the creators of the Exidy Sorcerer (1978) home computer platform.

Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1932 by Samuel H. Gensburg and Samuel Wolberg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, Gary Stern and Sam Stern purchased the assets of the Chicago Coin Machine Division as it was then called to found Stern Electronics, Inc. They also produced various arcade games during the 1960s to 1970s.

The history of video game consoles, both home and handheld, began in the 1970s. The first console that played games on a television set was the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, first conceived by Ralph H. Baer in 1966. Handheld consoles originated from electro-mechanical games that used mechanical controls and light-emitting diodes (LED) as visual indicators. Handheld electronic games had replaced the mechanical controls with electronic and digital components, and with the introduction of Liquid-crystal display (LCD) to create video-like screens with programmable pixels, systems like the Microvision and the Game & Watch became the first handheld video game consoles.

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The year 1973 saw a substantial increase in the number of video games created and distributed. In coin-operated games, a craze for Pong-style games ignited the first fad for video games both in the United States and other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Time-sharing networks saw greater proliferation of popular programs through type-in listings. The PLATO computer located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign played host to some of the earliest massively multiplayer games.

<i>Tank</i> (video game) 1974 arcade game

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<i>Gran Trak 10</i> 1974 arcade game

Gran Trak 10 is an arcade driving video game developed by Atari through its subsidiary Cyan Engineering, and released by Atari in May 1974. In the game, a single player drives a car along a race track, viewed from above, avoiding walls of pylons and trying to pass as many checkpoints as possible before time runs out. The game is controlled with a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals, and a gear stick, and the car crashes and spins if it hits a pylon.

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<i>Space Race</i> (video game) 1973 arcade game

Space Race is an arcade game developed by Atari, Inc. and released on July 16, 1973. It was the second game by the company, after Pong (1972), which marked the beginning of the commercial video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. In the game, two players each control a rocket ship, with the goal of being the first to move their ship from the bottom of the screen to the top. Along the way are asteroids, which the players must avoid. Space Race was the first racing arcade video game and the first game with a goal of crossing the screen while avoiding obstacles.

<i>Qwak!</i> 1974 video game

Qwak! is a single-player duck hunting light gun shooter arcade video game developed by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering and released in November 1974. In the game, ducks fly one at a time across the screen, and the player shoots at them using a light gun attached to the game cabinet. The player gets three shots per duck; ducks change direction away from missed shots and fall to the bottom of the screen when hit. A screen overlay adds images of reeds and a tree branch, and an image of a duck is added to a row at the top of the screen whenever a duck is hit. Games continue until a time limit, set by the machine operator, is reached.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari, Inc.</span> American video game developer (1972–1992)

Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.

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An arcade video game is an arcade game where the player's inputs from the game's controllers are processed through electronic or computerized components and displayed to a video device, typically a monitor, all contained within an enclosed arcade cabinet. Arcade video games are often installed alongside other arcade games such as pinball and redemption games at amusement arcades. Up until the late 1990s, arcade video games were the largest and most technologically advanced sector of the video game industry.

References

  1. ↑ "Fire-Hit Hialeah Factory Expects To Resume Output Within the Month". The Miami Herald. February 5, 1974. pp. 5-B.
  2. ↑ "Complaint For Patent Infringement". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. April 15, 1974. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Kitchener-Waterloo Community Corner Calendar of Events". Waterloo Region Record. June 14, 1974. p. 13.
  4. ↑ "Computer chess champion". Star-Phoenix. June 25, 1974. p. 2.
  5. ↑ "College computer loses electronic chess match". Daily Sentinel. November 15, 1974. p. 3.
  6. ↑ Smith, Alexander (November 27, 2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry. Vol. 1: 1971 – 1982. CRC Press. p. 288. ISBN   978-1-138-38990-8.
  7. ↑ "Bob Prinsen". Middlesex Chronicle. August 2, 1974. p. 10.
  8. ↑ "UW Chess Team Third". Waterloo Region Record. August 9, 1974. p. 3.
  9. ↑ "Sega Hosts TV Game Tourney In Tokyo". Cash Box: 45. October 26, 1974.
  10. ↑ "Atari Acquires Kee Games Factory; Keenan Prexy, Bushnell Chairman". Cash Box: 36. September 21, 1974.
  11. ↑ Range, Peter Ross (September 15, 1974). "The space age pinball machine". The New York Times. p. 92.
  12. ↑ "coin machine news". Cash Box: 40–41. November 16, 1974.
  13. 1 2 The Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1976. pp. 87–88.
  14. ↑ Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. p. 11. ISBN   978-0-9643848-1-1.
  15. ↑ "Meadows Games: from California to the World". RePlay. 1 (38): 28–29. July 1976.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Baer 2005, p. 11.
  17. ↑ Wieder, Robert (September 1974). "A Fistful of Quarters". Oui: 59–61, 128–129.
  18. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 12–13.
  19. ↑ McEwan, Charles E. (January 31, 1980). "Charles R. McEwan Deposition". Bally Manufacturing Corporation v. D. Gottlieb & Co., et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  20. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 10–11.
  21. ↑ Cognevich, Valerie (March 15, 1986). "Video-game industry still evolving". Play Meter. 12 (4): 12, 14–16.
  22. 1 2 Neven, John F. (July 11, 1977). "Notice of Motion". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  23. 1 2 The Electronic Games Market in the U.S. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1983. pp. 26–26a.
  24. ↑ Electronic Games & Personal Computers. Predicasts Inc. February 1979. p. 41.
  25. ↑ Predicasts Inc. 1979, p. 42.
  26. ↑ Fritsche, Robert E. (December 28, 1976). "Trial Transcript". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. p. 495. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  27. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 76.
  28. ↑ Peterson, Jon (2024). Playing at the World, 2E, Volume 1: The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons. Game histories (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-37939-7.
  29. ↑ Akagi, Masumi (2005). アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005)[List of Arcade TV Games (1971-2005)] (in Japanese). アミューズメント通信社. p. 41. ISBN   978-4990251215.
  30. ↑ Shaw, Mike (October 15, 1985). "East is East and West is East". Play Meter: 28, 30.
  31. ↑ Fries, Ed (June 14, 2017). "Fixing Gran Trak 10" . Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  32. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 188–189.
  33. ↑ "California Clippings". Cash Box: 56. March 30, 1974.
  34. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 180.
  35. ↑ "Streaking is new Clean Sweep is Newer". Cash Box. May 25, 1974. p. 51.
  36. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 283.
  37. ↑ Akagi 2005, p. 34.
  38. ↑ "Ramtek Intro's Baseball Video Game at Expo". Cash Box: MOA28. November 2, 1974.
  39. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 176.
  40. ↑ Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012). Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Press. ISBN   978-0985597405.
  41. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 193–194.
  42. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 199–200.
  43. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 201.
  44. ↑ Moss, Richard (May 21, 2015). "The first first-person shooter". Polygon. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  45. ↑ "tapes". People's Computer Company: 13. January 1974.
  46. ↑ Bowery, Jim (December 30, 2008). "Spasim (1974) The First First-Person-Shooter 3D Multiplayer Online Game" . Retrieved September 30, 2024.
  47. ↑ Ant (April 22, 2015). "Wander (1974) — a lost mainframe game is found!". Retroactive Fiction. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
  48. ↑ Braun, David H. (June 14, 1974). "David Braun Deposition". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
  49. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 210.
  50. ↑ "Il Gioco-Sport di Moda". L'Europo: 1. October 10, 1974.
  51. ↑ "Colour TV". Evening Post. October 24, 1974. p. 11.
  52. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 271.
  53. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 428.
  54. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 292.
  55. ↑ "Philips Has 84.1% Of Magnavox". The Cincinnati Enquirer. October 30, 1974. p. 22.
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